World Series: Cubs dash Indians’ World Series hopes in 10th inning of Game 7

Thursday

Nov 3, 2016 at 4:46 AM

Joe Scalzo The Repository

CLEVELAND — The 108-year-old championship drought officially ended at 12:47 a.m. Thursday morning when a relatively unknown Indians hitter named Michael Martinez hit a slow grounder to Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, who gloved it and tossed to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, setting off a wild celebration in the middle of the Progressive Field infield.

But boy, that doesn’t begin to capture what happened over the previous four hours and 45 minutes.

In one of the greatest Game 7s in World Series history, the Cleveland Indians gave the best team in baseball everything it could handle before falling 8-7 on an unseasonably warm night in northeast Ohio.

“It’s going to hurt,” Indians manager Terry Francona said afterward. “It hurts because we care. But they need to walk with their heads held high.”

After the Indians erased a three-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth, the Cubs survived a 17-minute rain delay and a nerve-wracking 10th inning to win their first world championship since 1908. It was the longest title drought in baseball history.

The longest current drought? Well, it now belongs to the Indians, who have gone 68 years since winning it all in 1948 and have come up short four times since: 1954, 1995, 1997 and 2016.

The Cubs took an 8-6 lead in the top of the 10th when Ben Zobrist hit an RBI double with one out and Miguel Montero followed with an RBI single one out later.

After Mike Napoli struck out against Carl Edwards Jr. and Jose Ramirez grounded out to second to start the bottom of the 10th, Cleveland looked like it might have enough magic left to extend the game. Brandon Guyer coaxed a five-pitch walk and quickly moved to second on defensive indifference. Rajai Davis, who had tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with a three-run homer, then singled to center to score Guyer and chase Edwards.

The Cubs then turned to Mike Montgomery, who needed just two pitches to end it.

Although the Cubs led for most of the game, Cleveland turned into “Believeland” in the bottom of the eighth when, on a 2-2 pitch, against the nastiest reliever in the game (Aroldis Chapman), Davis buried a two-run homer that landed in the left field porch that tied the game at 6. LeBron James promptly went full-on Hulk Hogan from his suite, flexing and screaming along with the roughly 25,000 Cleveland fans who opted not to sell their seats to Cubs fans on StubHub.

After holding Chicago scoreless in the ninth, Cleveland sent its 1-2-3 hitters to the plate in the bottom of the inning, only to watch Carlos Santana fly out to left, Jason Kipnis strike out swinging and Francisco Lindor fly out to right.

It felt like a missed opportunity at the time, and it probably always will.

Indians starter Corey Kluber, who had won Games 1 and 4, was pitching his second straight game on three days’ rest and it sure looked like it. Kluber scuffled through four-plus innings, giving up four runs after entering the game with a 4-1 record and a 0.89 ERA this poseason. Reliever Andrew Miller, the ALCS MVP who spent most of the postseason pitching like the angel of death, gave up two runs in two innings.

Santana, Kipnis and Lindor and cleanup hitter Mike Napoli, meanwhile, combined to go just 2 of 19 with one RBI, while the Cubs’ first four hitters (Dexter Fowler, Kyle Schwarber, Bryant and Rizzo) were 8 of 17. Zobrist was named MVP, although he finished just 1 for 5.

The Cubs have maybe the most talented roster in baseball and a huge bank vault to keep it together, so this could be the start of a long stretch of success on the city’s North Side.

But with one of baseball’s best pitching staffs (when healthy) and an exciting core of players, there’s plenty of reason to believe in Believeland beyond this year.

After all, there are only 59 days between now and Jan. 1.

Can’t wait ’til next year.— You can reach Joe Scalzo joe.scalzo@cantonrep.com or on Twitter @jscalzoREP.